1. Early Contralateral Shoulder-Arm Morbidity in Breast Cancer Patients Enrolled in a Randomized Trial of Post-Surgery Radiation Therapy.
- Author
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Adriaenssens, Nele, Vinh-hung, Vincent, Miedema, Geertje, Versmessen, Harijati, Lamote, Jan, Vanhoeij, Marian, Lievens, Pierre, van Parijs, Hilde, Storme, Guy, Voordeckers, Mia, and De Ridder, Mark
- Subjects
LYMPHEDEMA ,SHOULDER injuries ,ACADEMIC medical centers ,BREAST tumors ,CONFIDENCE intervals ,MULTIVARIATE analysis ,RADIOTHERAPY ,REGRESSION analysis ,RESEARCH funding ,T-test (Statistics) ,RANDOMIZED controlled trials ,AROMATASE inhibitors ,EARLY medical intervention ,DATA analysis software ,DESCRIPTIVE statistics ,SENTINEL lymph node biopsy ,DISEASE complications ,INJURY risk factors ,DISEASE risk factors - Abstract
Introduction: Shoulder/arm morbidity is a common complication of breast cancer surgery and radiotherapy (RT), but little is known about acute contralateral morbidity. Methods: Patients were 118 women enrolled in a RT trial. Arm volume and shoulder mobility were assessed before and 1-3 months after RT. Correlations and linear regression were used to analyze changes affecting ipsilateral and contralateral arms, and changes affecting relative interlimb differences (RID). Results: Changes affecting one limb correlated with changes affecting the other limb. Arm volume between the two limbs correlated (R = 0.57). Risk factors were weight increase and axillary dissection. Contralateral and ipsilateral loss of abduction strongly correlated (R = 0.78). Changes of combined RID exceeding 10% affected the ipsilateral limb in 25% of patients, and the contralateral limb in 18%. Aromatase inhibitor therapy was significantly associated with contralateral loss of abduction. Conclusions: High incidence of early contralateral arm morbidity warrants further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
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